The Puppet Master
by Septdeneuf
Summary: When Natsu finds Lucy's been abducted he and his friends don't hesitate to go find her, but they didn't expect their friend to turn into their enemy...
1. Chapter 1

„You know, one day we should just knock on Lucy's door, see how she reacts", Happy said as Natsu was crouching on the window sill working the latch.

„Huh? But that's normal, what do you mean ‚how she reacts'?", the Dragonslayer asked. Even though he'd done it before, the mechanism was being stubborn again. Almost a though it wasn't meant to be opened from the outside.

„Aye! But we never do it, so it'll surprise her!", Happy declared, flying up and down a little.

„Well… if you think so. Sounds boring, though", Natsu said. Someone from the street was looking up at him, but he just waved to the guy, who looked so confused at that action that he just left.

„Trust me, her reaction will be funny", Happy said with a smile on his face.

„Ah, there we go", Natsu said as he finally managed to open Lucy's window. She always reacted so violently to them being here, he had a feeling she didn't even appreciate how much effort they put into this. Balancing on the windowsill while opening the window at the same time did require some skill.

„Oi! Lucy", Natsu declared to the dark apartment once he was inside.

„Hey Lucy", Happy said, flying in after him.

No reaction. „Maybe she's in the bathroom", the blue cat suggested.

„No I don't think so, it doesn't smell of soap", Natsu said, sniffing in.

„Oh, so we have to wait for her again?", Happy asked, and settled down on the bed, ready to start the wait. „I thought Mira said Lucy went home a few hours ago." But Natsu wasn't listening. Because even though it didn't smell of soap, it did smell of something else he recognized, and he didn't like it one bit.

He moved roughly towards the desk, as well as he could orient himself without any light, because the smell was stronger there. He knew what it was, immediately, but he told himself that he was wrong. After all, why would he smell that, here? Not unless…

Natsu found the reading lamp on the desk and turned it on. Pages of Lucy's novel were strewn hapharzardly around, some on the desk, a few on the floor.

Some of them with drops of blood on them.

He leaned one hand on the desk before he realized the corner of it was sticky with the red substance as well. He jerked his hand back. „Natsu, is that…?", Happy started with a slightly quivering voice. Natsu gave a nod, and summoned a ball of fire in his other hand, to illuminate the room further. He didn't like what he saw, at all.

The desk chair was overturned, a few more pages further on the floor, a few bloodied strands of blonde hair along with them. The lock on the door was broken, a few splinters of wood had burst out of the frame.

Not all of the blood had dried yet, this couldn't have happened more than a few hours ago.

Natsu felt the rage boiling up inside his stomach. Someone had taken his nakama. Not only that, but hurt her, as well.

He was going to make them very sorry.

Happy had hopped down from the bed and was looking at the mess from close up, tears gathering in his eyes. Natsu leaned down as well, closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, memorizing the smell, a combination of Lucy's blood, her usual distinct smell and that of one, or maybe two other people. When he was confident that he would remember the smell he got up and went out the door.

„Natsu, wait", Happy called out. „Shouldn't we get Gray and Erza, too?"

„No time", Natsu said, without stopping. „The quicker we find her, the better." He didn't wait for Happy's response and left the apartment. Outside, it was more difficult to distinguish the smell, and the darkness made it almost impossible to see the trail, but it was more faint anyway. That was going to make finding her harder, but it also meant that whatever her injury was, it hadn't bled that much, and he was glad about that.

After a moment to center himself he found the trail again. It led to a small alleyway next to Lucy's house. Made sense, because otherwise they would've been seen dragging a bleeding girl around town.

The rosy haired dragonslayer followed the trail with a single minded determination that he usually reserved for battle, and quickly made his way through a variety of back streets and alleys, many of which he'd never been in before, despite having lived in Magnolia for most of his life.

If he didn't have his sense of smell to guide him, he would probably already be hopelessly lost and unable to find his way back, but as it were he barely even noticed where he was going, avoiding collisions with some people walking around only because they were paying attention. Someone called him something rude when that happened, but Natsu didn't even look up.

He left the city via a smaller, mostly unused road, that eventually led back to the main road. When he got close to the intersection, however, the trail he'd been following abruptly stopped. He doubled back and then got down on all fours, sniffing along the ground to find out why the trail had stopped.

The ground was soft, and he found slight indentations, but it took him a moment to figure out what they were. Tires. A car had parked here, and the people who had Lucy must've gotten into it. Well that wasn't good at all.

Of course even a car left a trail of smells that he could follow, but the regular trail in Magnolia, which had consisted of several distinct smells had already not been easy, trying to track down a car was going to slow him down even more.

And wherever they'd been going this way they'd gotten there much faster and could already be doing stuff to Lucy… He pushed those thoughts from his head. He'd find her, he'd save her and everything would be fine, he just had to concentrate. He breathed in deeply, closing his eyes, but before he could pinpoint the exact smell he was going to be looking for from here, he noticed several that were much more familiar.

„Natsu!", he heard Happy cry. As he looked up, he finally noticed that the blue cat hadn't been following him (which he'd sort of assumed), but instead had gone out to get Gray and Erza who were running after him.

Huh. Happy going to get help while Natsu was already tracking the attackers was actually a really good idea. Not one he'd have come up with in his current mindset, but a good one, nonetheless.

„Natsu, Happy told us what happened. Can you find her?", Erza said without any further words of greeting.

„They got into a car here", Natsu explained.

„So can you follow that?", Gray wanted to know.

„Yes, but not as good. It'll take longer." He knelt down and sniffed a few more times until he was sure, then he stood up again. „Got it." And he took off without another word, his team mates right behind him.

He wouldn't say he needed them. He'd find Lucy and get her back no matter what, but he was glad to have his friends there, anyway. Even Gray, though that would never be admitted.. Honestly, he had no idea what they were facing, and there was comfort in knowing that his friends were there and just as pissed off as he was.

They moved through the terrain quickly, uncharacteristically quiet for their group. When it was just them there was usually a fight between him and Gray with Erza breaking it up and Happy commenting on it, but right now they were all focused on finding the missing member of their team.

Natsu had to stop a few times when he was scared that he'd lost the trail but was able to find it again each time. He barely noticed where they were going even though he was leading the way, and was surprised when he found the way getting steeper and steeper until he first noticed snow at the roadside.

When they'd gone high enough for the road to be entirely covered it turned out to be a blessing, because the sky was clear, and no new snow had fallen in the last few hours, making the tire tracks easily distinguishable and they were able to move along much quicker.

They'd been walking for a few hours, when quite abruptly the trail ended in a solid wall of ice.

„What the hell?", Natsu said and came to a stop.

„It looks like they just drove into the glacier", Gray said, but when he looked further up, his eyes went wide. „No way…" Natsu followed his gaze but couldn't make out anything special. It was a huge ice structure that didn't look any different from the surrounding mountaintops…

Except for the windows. „An ice castle?", Erza asked, trying not to sound impressed.

Natsu put his fist in his palm and grinned. „Great, so I can just melt it."

„Don't be an idiot", Gray said, „First of all, that thing is huge, I don't care how many flames you spit, that's going to take a few hours at least, and it's probably magical, too, so that'll take even longer. And if you try that you're just going to to announce our presence to everyone there, and we have no idea what we're facing. Plus, worst case scenario, Lucy is somewhere deep in there, and when it all turns to water, she drowns."

Natsu put his hands down and glared at Gray. He hated it whenever brain freeze was right.

„Just melt down this part of the wall so we can get in. If they went through here there must be a room behind it", Erza suggested.

„Fine", Natsu said, and put his hand on the wall, heating it up. He had to make a conscious effort to restrain himself, though. Once he'd made a hole big enough for all of them to pass through he went in.

He had to admit, he was sort of impressed by what he saw on the inside. He'd expected ice room with regular stuff in them, but that was dead wrong. Everything there was made of ice, from the elaborate staircase to the flowers in the vase on an end table. There was even a picture made of several layers of ice on the wall. It looked like the entrance hall of a large villa, except everything was transparent.

As a fire mage Natsu was never cold, of course. He could raise his body temperature at will and light fires wherever he went, but still, looking at all the ice made him feel like he should be cold. His breath was hanging in the air in front of him, and as he turned around to his nakama, he could see that the same was true for them as well.

And of course Gray had chosen the moment when they stepped into a huge room containing nothing but ice to discard his his shirt. And people called Natsu a monster.

„Wow…" the ice mage said, getting closer to the picture and inspecting it with awe.

„Gray. We're here to rescue Lucy, not for decorating ideas", Erza scolded him.

„I know, I know", Gray said, but that didn't stop him from carefully looking at all the furniture.

„Let's go", Natsu said and went towards the giant staircase, because it looked like the way in. He was just about halfway up, when suddenly the ground got a whole lot more slippery and he found himself face planting on the carpet (which was made of ice, too, of course).

„Idiot. Don't melt the ground with your feet", Gray said, and leaned down next to the two liquid indentations the stairs now had.

„Well, you don't have to fix it for them", Natsu said while forcing his body temperature down. In an unconscious effort not to feel cold he must've overdone it a bit. Gray stood back up, but looked at the holes in the staircase with something like regret. Maybe Gray would build his own ice castle one day. That one Natsu would melt without a second thought.

„We don't have time for this", Erza said, getting them both back on track. „Get up."

Natsu pushed himself up from the floor, and they went into the next room, which was a wide hallway with lots of doors. The walls themselves weren't transparent but the doors were a little, so they weren't surprised, when one of them was pushed open.

„Well what do we have here? Fairy Tail to the rescue, huh? Guess I shouldn't be surprised." Only an arm pushing the door open was visible, before the figure stepped into view. „Though it's impressive you came this quickly. You're the first ones to find this place that weren't brought here."

„Lucy!", Natsu yelled as he saw the summoners' familiar face. There she was, miniskirt and side ponytail, and didn't look hurt at all. He ran towards her and could barely believe their luck. Just getting in and finding her right away? And here he'd been worried…

He firmly ignored all of his instincts that were screaming at him that something was wrong.

Which was why he didn't didn't see the whip curling itself around his ankles bringing him crashing into the floor the second time that day.

„Tsk. No running indoors", Lucy said with a smirk.

„Lucy, what the hell?", Gray yelled from somewhere behind him. Natsu pushed himself up. _She should be cold_, he realized. She was wearing her usual ensemble of mini skirt and tank top, which had her shivering and complaining both times they'd went up into the mountains and yet here she was, standing in the middle of an ice castle looking to all the world as though she belonged there.

„Oh, I'm sorry, was that rude?", she asked sweetly, rolling up her whip and attaching it to her belt again. Natsu got up from the floor and was now really looking at his friend. It looked like her, smelled like her, there was no doubt, but something about her eyes… something wasn't quite right there and he had no idea what it was.

Suddenly, she grabbed one of her keys and yelled, „Open! Gate of the Lion! Leo!" The spirit in question appeared immediately, pushing up his glasses, looking at Lucy with his back turned towards the other mages.

„Kill them", Lucy said in a tone that was entirely too sweet for the words.

Loke's eyes grew wide at those words, but when he turned around and saw who she was indicating, he flinched so violently that he almost lost his glasses, and he had to scramble to put them back on.

„What?", he asked, turning back to Lucy, looking like he'd just seen a ghost.

„You heard me." There was something in her voice, now, underlying and vaguely threatening, and hearing his best friend talk like that sent and involuntary shiver down Natsu's spine.

„I-I don't know what's going on here, but I think I'd better leave", Loke said, turning back towards the others and looking quite lost.

But Lucy wouldn't have that. Key in hand she said, slowly, „You can leave, when at least one of them is lying on the floor, bleeding. And the cat doesn't count."

„Lucy, what the hell is wrong with you?", Natsu asked, everyone in the room agreeing to his sentiment. „I do count!", Happy yelled in the background.

„Well, frankly I'm a little disappointed, I thought she was supposed to have the most loyal spirits of any summoner, and now he's being so difficult…", she said with a sigh.

„You're not Lucy", Loke said cautiously. He was edging away from her, little by little.

„Oh I am. Side ponytail, perky boobs, all there. I can assure you, that this is the real Lucy Heartfilia", she said. She used both hands to lift her breasts a little.

„But she's not the one talking right now, is she?", Loke asked.

„Well, I gave myself away there, didn't I? But that shouldn't matter to you. Your master gave you a direct order, which means you have to do it."

„No I don't", Loke said with renewed confidence. „I have to do what Lucy wants, and I know it's not this. Who are you, and what have you done with her?"

Lucy grinned, and struck a pose, hand on her hip. „They call me the Puppet Master. And you're talking to the newest addition to my collection. But as I mentioned before, I'm not quite happy with her. You see, I picked her, because she was like a ten for one deal, with all the spirits under her control, but if there all as moody as you, I'm not sure I want to keep her. See this?", she said, turning her head to reveal some sort of glowing crystal that was stuck to the side of her neck that Natsu hadn't noticed before.

„Don't bother trying to remove it, you'd kill her, or at best turn her into a vegetable. Anyway, I can make it explode." She made an exploding gesture with her hand. „Boom, brains all over the wall. Thankfully the ice is easy to clean." She ran a hand down the immaculate ice wall for emphasis.

„I'll just do that, then take her keys, summon you myself, and once I'm your master you have to do as I say. That's actually the sort of administrative hassle I'd been hoping to avoid, but if that's what you prefer…", she said with a pout, but then shrugged.

Loke visibly paled and looked between Lucy who was now sporting an evil grin and his Fairy Tail friends.

When he bowed his head slightly and said, „I'm sorry", to the other mages, no one was really surprised. Of course, if they just defeated him he could go back to the spirit world without endangering Lucy. None of them wanted to hurt Loke, but he couldn't die. Lucy could.

„Finally", she declared, no, the guy controlling her declared. „I think I'll make this more interesting, though. I'll show you my favorite puppet." As she said that the door next to Natsu (he had to admit he hadn't even realized he was standing next to one) opened and a girl in a white tunic with long flowing hair stepped out. Three large spikes were stuck in her left shoulder, which looked jarring next to the flowing fabric, but the thing about her that was the most unsettling were her eyes, pale blue and completely expressionless.

She touched Natsu lightly on the shoulder, which was odd, but what was even stranger was the fact that he suddenly felt extremely cold.

„What…?", he said, and then saw that the girl's hand was engulfed in flames that looked a whole lot like his did.

Scratch that, exactly like his. And he was so surprised by that that he didn't even think to dodge the attack. When a flaming fist connected with his face, he yowled in pain. „Ow! What the hell, that's hot!" He barely ever encountered flames that could hurt him, but even under those special circumstances those never felt as hot and burning as these had, and they were perfectly normal ones!

„That's cause it's fire, flame brain", Gray said. „At least now you know how it feels to everybody else." Natsu turned to see that Loke was fighting with Erza, but it didn't look the way it should've if either of them were serious about the fight.

Turning around was of course not a good idea, and he was rewarded with another flaming punch, aimed at his torso. At least his clothes were fire resistant, but it hurt like a bitch, anyway. He tried to eat the flames, but to no avail, and when he tried to summon his own, absolutely nothing happened.

„Have you figured it out, yet?", Lucy said from behind him. It sounded like she was grinning, but Natsu didn't check, doing his best to dodge the next attack, which still managed to burn his ankle. „Mikigi here is something quite special. She can take away an enemy's magic and use it for herself. Of course, when she takes it away from you, you don't have any anymore." The girl in question kicked at Natsu, with flames all around her foot and he jumped back to avoid here. She was quick, too, though.

„And want to know the best part? She doesn't even get tired doing it. Because it's your magic force she's using. Of course it stops working once she's used it all up, since life force and magic force are the same thing for a mage, but I'm sure if she moves on to the shirtless guy or the red headed bombshell, it'll be equally entertaining." She let out an evil chuckle that didn't sound like her at all. Getting beaten up with his own flames was one thing, but the fact that this bastard had the gall to use Lucy's voice to say all of these terrible things seemed ten times worse to him.

When Mikigi gathered the energy for the next attack, Natsu felt vaguely ill as the flames around her grew. Not as bad as on a vehicle, but he could feel the magic drainging out of him. He tried to dodge the attack, but before he could even make his move she turned around and hit Gray, who had been helping Erza and hadn't expected an attack from that direction squarely in the chest.

He was suddenly grabbed by his scarf and yanked into the next room. He stumbled but found his footing again. The place where the door had been suddenly froze over, leaving an immaculate ice wall behind, separating him from his nakama and their fight. He turned around to face not-Lucy who was grinning at him smugly. Her face, but not her expression, and that made rage boil up inside him.

„I don't know who you really are, or why you're doing this, but I will find you, and I'll make you pay for what you did to her", Natsu promised, his voice a low growl.

„And how are you going to do that without your magic?" Lucy looked like she was enjoying this way too much. „I admire your spirit, but that's not going to take you far. Though you can die knowing that in the past few years no one even managed to get here. You should be proud of yourself."

„I'll be proud once I've destroyed you", he growled. He couldn't suppress a sharp intake of air though, when he felt more of his magic leaving him. Lucy took her étoile fleuve from her belt and cracked it once, menacingly. How a whip made from mostly starlight managed to even make that sound, he didn't know, but he didn't have any time to contemplate that as he had to dodge an attack that came with quite a lot more force than he had anticipated.

„You're really quite entertaining. I think your head will make a fine addition to my collection", Lucy said while cracking her whip at him three times. He was just barely able to avoid being hit the first two times, jumping out of the way, but the third caught him across the shoulder. It just occurred to him that all those times when Lucy had kicked him in the face upon finding him in her apartment she hadn't actually put all of her strength behind it. Which was nice to know, actually, but had led to him misjudging her strength quite badly.

„You have a collection of heads?" On instinct, he tried to summon a flame around his fist, but was met with the same empty feeling he'd always experienced in Edolas. It wasn't something he had been hoping to repeat.

„Oh yes, carefully maintained." She sounded conversational, but landed a kick to his midriff. „Only when there was a head left over, of course. There was nothing but a show to commemorate one of my enemies, tragic story, really." Natsu didn't really want to hit Lucy. Despite being controlled by some crazy guy it was still her, and he didn't want to hurt her, but he realized he had no choice. Hopefully she'd forgive him once they were out of here, he thought, as he launched his counterattack.

He landed a punch to her face and followed it up with an elbow to her midriff, and then managed to snatch the whip out of her hands. As he hit her, she didn't make a sound, and he realized that he wasn't causing the person controlling her any pain with this, so how had he gotten the whip if there was no pain to distract…?

From this angle she shouldn't have been able to kick him in the face as hard as she did, but when she followed it up with jamming her elbow down on his head he saw stars and fell to the ground.

„Not bad", Lucy said, and knelt down next to him. „Considering how Mikigi is just flattening everything with your magic, this is actually quite impressive. Still, trying to beat up a girl? Really?" She yanked on his scarf abruptly and for a moment Natsu thought she was trying to choke him with it, but then she just pulled it away, making him feel even colder on the ice floor.

„Hey! Give me back my scarf!", Natsu yelled as Lucy walked away from him. He tried to push himself off the floor, but the world was swimming in front of his eyes. His magic was draining rapidly, and he found himself worried for his friends on the other side of the wall. If Natsu went all out in a fight with Gray, he could win, and apparently this girl was just throwing his power around without a second thought. It wasn't hers, she didn't need to hold back.

„Well, you wouldn't want it to get drenched in blood when your best friend decapitates you, now would you?", Lucy said, standing next to what looked like an umbrella stand, pulling out a large katana that for once wasn't made out of ice.

Natsu would never admit what his first two thoughts upon hearing that were, the first needing a few moments to realize what the word decapitate even meant, and the second that no, he really wouldn't want his scarf to get dirty. How thoughtful!

He braced his hands on the floor and tried to push himself up, but to no avail. His limbs just wouldn't cooperate. Lucy was slowly walking over to where he lay, absently scratching long waves into the ice floor with the tip of her sword.

„If you hold still, this'll probably hurt less", she said in a soothing tone that made a shiver run down Natsu's spine. He dimly realized that this could very well be it. He could barely move, and it was getting worse with each passing moment, and that sword looked really sharp. Did Lucy have the strength to chop of a head in one go? Or would it need several?

He pushed those thoughts from his head. No, he couldn't give up here. He wouldn't let any of his friends get away with giving up in a situation like this, so he wouldn't do it, either. He curled his fingers, and by pure willpower alone, managed to crawl a short distance, putting his weight back on his elbows.

„Pathetic", Lucy commented, and Natsu knew she wasn't wrong, but he did his best to push himself further. He froze when he felt the tip of the blade gently trailing along his neck. „Say goodbye, Salamander of Fairy Tail."

The blade left his neck, and he knew she was raising it for her final blow. Desperately he tried to at least roll away, but only managed to collapse from his elbows.

Despite himself, he squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the blow.

A/N: To be continued, let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Despite himself, Natsu squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the blow.

He couldn't believe that it was all supposed to end like this. Really not the way he'd ever pictured himself going out, completely useless, lying on the floor, reduced to an unmoving mess which soon wouldn't have a head anymore.

And being killed by his best friend, who probably didn't even know she was doing it…

It took him a lot longer than it should've to realize that the blow wasn't coming. He cracked an eye open, staring at his hands and was extremely glad that all his parts were still were they were supposed to be. A little embarrassed to find that he was shivering, though.

For a moment he debated whether he should look up. He really didn't want to see the blade coming down at him to kill him, but if it hadn't happened yet, maybe…

"What are you waiting for, you stupid bitch?", Lucy's voice suddenly asked, and Natsu was momentarily confused. Had someone else entered the room while he hadn't been looking? He finally looked up and found that Lucy's expression had changed. Her eyes were wide and her lips were moving, but no sound came out.

That wasn't the puppet master. That was her, actually her. He felt relief flooding through him, which only intensified when her hand opened, and the sword fell clattering to the ground.

"Lucy?", he asked tentatively.

"Don't bother, idiot. Stronger minds than hers have tried to get out of my control and they all failed", she announced haughtily, her expression quite suddenly back to that look of superiority that looked completely misplaced on he face.

Well, screw that. Natsu had no idea who those stronger minds were, but he seriously doubted they could hold a candle to Lucy. After all, if she set her mind on something she could be scarier than Erza. He reached up to grab her hand and pulled her down to his eye level, pleased to find almost no resistance. As soon as she'd stopped talking with the puppet master's voice her expression had changed back, and he could see the struggle on her face.

"Lucy, listen to me. You can do this, you can stop doing what he tells you to. I believe in you."

"Save your speeches", she spat. „Even if this one's a little bothersome you'll soon be dead, anyway, at the rate Mikigi's draining you." Natsu absolutely hated agreeing with the stupid asshole that was making Lucy say that, but he did have a point. He didn't have a lot of time before his power was completely gone, but he wouldn't let that distract him. Right now, Lucy was more important.

"Come on. You're Lucy Heartfilia. No one can make you do stuff you don't want to, not me, not your father, or even the entire phantom guild, and definitely not a grown man who plays with dolls!" He was rewarded with a short chuckle as he said that, a hesitant smile that was most definitely Lucy's. It only lasted for an instant, before her features morphed again.

"I'm not playing with dolls! You obviously don't understand the concept of what I'm doing here at all, but that's fine, you're just about dead anyway, oh great Salamander of Fairy Tail." Natsu ignored the words and kept focusing on his partner. When he'd made the joke it had been her that reacted. Because she was surprised, maybe? And it had taken a moment before the guy had been able to get his control back.

So he had to do something. Something that would be so unexpected for Lucy that her reaction would be hers, something so surprising that it would make her snap out of it and be herself again…

He honestly had no idea how his brain came up with his next idea, since it was completely outside of the box he was usually comfortable thinking in, but if it surprised even him, there was no way she could see it coming, right?

For lack of a better idea he decided to just go for it. He reached around her and put a hand on her neck, pulling her closer to him and pressed his lips on hers.

As he was doing it he could do nothing but hope that it was enough to snap her out of it and that the surprise was enough to cover up the fact that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. He probably should've been paying attention whenever it had been that everyone else had gotten their mysterious understanding of this kind of stuff, but thinking about that didn't help him right now, either.

He pulled back and really hoped that Lucy would go back to herself, now, instead of being the 'puppet' trying to murder him.

Of course there was always the possibility that she would come back to herself and kill him, anyway.

"N…Natsu", she said in a breathy tone, blinking at him a few times. Before abruptly displaying an evil smirk. „Kissing your executioner, huh? There's a certain tragic romance to that, I guess. I need to make sure to tell your friends once you're dead…" Suddenly Lucy whipped her head around, turning to the side and closing her eyes. „Shut up!" She yelled, still so close to his face that it hurt his ears a little.

"Lucy…?", he asked hesitantly. She whipped her head back to face him and said, „Not you!"

"Oh no you won't!", she suddenly yelled. „A spoiled little princess from a rich family is not going to stop me, and for the record you'll be punished severely for even trying."

"Hell yeah she's stopping you", Natsu interjected, making both Lucy's personalities (it was a little odd to think that it was actually just the one person sitting in front of him. „Cause she's not a spoiled little girl. She's a Fairy Tail mage! And if you understood what that meant, you would have stayed clear of Magnolia altogether, asshole!"

Lucy turned her head to the side again, and Natsu could see that the weird crystal an her neck was now blinking, the greenish light going on and off.

"That's right", she said, her voice low. „Pissing off Fairy Tail is a seriously bad idea. And you'll be sorry you tried to hurt my friends." The light shone a little more brightly one last time, before finally going out.

She turned to look back at him. „Natsu, are you all right?" The concern in her voice was definitely hers. She'd won. Just like he'd known she would.

He grinned at her. „I'm glad you're back", he said. But now that he didn't have to concentrate on getting her sane again, he felt the lack of his magic much more drastically than before. And he was still shivering, because he didn't have his fire protecting him from the cold of the ice floor he was sprawled on. „Would be nice if that girl stopped stealing my magic, though."

"Okay. Hold on, I'll make her stop", Lucy with conviction and stood up, leaving the room quickly.

Well, he really hoped her confidence wasn't misplaced. Because he honestly didn't know how long he could even stay awake.

* * *

><p>If Natsu and Gray were to go all out in a fight, the ice mage wouldn't be the one to emerge victorious. As much as he hated to acknowledge the fact (and secretly thought that with his obviously superior intellect he might be able to do something about it) fighting Mikigi made him painfully aware of it.<p>

He'd been cut off from Erza early on, when an ice wall had just appeared between where she and Loki were fighting and where Mikigi had started attacking him. He didn't know where Natsu and Lucy where, either, while Happy was a whimpering heap on the floor behind him, having been the target of one fire dragon's iron fist. Gray had put up an ice shield to stop the blast, which would've worked perfectly if he'd realized just a little sooner that he wasn't the target. When he'd heard the blue feline's scream he felt guilty, but it looked as if his injuries weren't life threatening, and the 'Puppet' hadn't spared him another glance.

She was probably one of the most unnerving opponents he had ever fought against, simply because she _didn't say a word. _Even Erza, the most disciplined fighter he knew, talked during her battles, but this 'Puppet' was just staring at him with empty eyes. He recognized a lot of the fire eater's signature moves, but Mikigi never named them the way Natsu did. The first few times his mind had helpfully supplied a chorus of 'Fire dragon's… whichever' but as he was driven more and more towards the defensive, he'd stopped.

It actually made him feel a little self conscious about yelling 'Ice Make' all the time, but he knew that if he stopped doing that in the middle of a fight it would just mess up his concentration.

Mikigi wasn't as good with the techniques as Natsu was when properly motivated, which was a blessing, because with motivation the annoying idiot could turn into one of the scariest things ever if you were his opponent, but she didn't tire, and even though Gray knew he hit her and was pretty sure he'd managed to injure her she moved as though she didn't even feel it. And she was using some of Natsu's biggest attacks right after one another without even pausing to breathe.

He'd manage to pretty much ruin her flowing white tunic, which hadn't been his intention, but made the three large black spikes sticking out of her shoulder look even more grotesque. He couldn't figure out what the point of that was.

"Ice Make… Lance!", he cried out, landing another direct hit, which she didn't even seem to notice.

But he definitely noticed when she moved her flaming hands in a way that made him think "with a flaming left hand and a…" Not something Gray would want to get hit by. There was nowhere to hide from the attack, and he didn't trust himself to dodge it, so he hit his fist in his palm and yelled "Ice Make Shield!"

He was a little surprised himself when he realized that he'd made his shield to look exactly like the surrounding walls. His subconscious was apparently much more taken with the whole ice palace concept than he'd realized.

The attack hit and it wasn't too surprising that the shield shattered, but at least Gray himself was unharmed by it. But he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to put up many more shields of that strength, as he was already panting from the exertion. How other people could fight and wear clothes without melting from the heat was really beyond him.

Mikigi stepped over the remains of his shield and looked at it with an interest that didn't fit her former look of complete indifference no matter what happened at all. "Well, you're a talented one, aren't you?", she said, her voice soft, but her tone condescending. A smirk appeared on her face and made her look like a completely different person than the one he'd been fighting against. "Better than my current ice mage, for sure. She'd never put up a wall of that quality that quickly. And during a fight, no less. Maybe I should trade in."

Her demeanor was rapidly changed, and quite closely resembled Lucy when she'd been talking to them before (also an unnerving experience) so Gray concluded that the Puppet Master himself was now controlling Mikigi, or at least controlling her more than he had before.

"You're a guy, though… that's not really what I'm looking for."

"Yeah well I'm looking to be recruited", Gray gave back and got in position for another attack.

"You are good looking though", she went on, completely ignoring what he'd said. "Hm… maybe that could actually be worth a try, be more open minded, broaden the horizons…"

Gray had developed the habit of stripping as a means to stop himself from feeling cold, and by extension it had also stopped him from feeling shame. But as her eyes roamed over his body he wished for the first time in years that he was wearing clothing. He wasn't quite sure what she was getting at, but all the theories he came up with made him wish the silent expressionless opponent from before back. That had actually been less creepy.

"Well… not sure if I'm really into that", Migiki went on. "But maybe I can wait a bit with killing you, in case I change my mind." Her arms were engulfed in flames again. "Doesn't mean I can't hurt you before I do that, though."

"Ice Make Hammer!", Gray yelled instead of answering, because he really wanted to pretend that bit of talk just hadn't happened at all, but for the first time in the entire fight Mikigi dodged his attack, and he was surprised to find that she was actually pretty quick.

But that wasn't the most worrying realization. What was worse was that the flames around her arms were getting weaker. _If they're gone it means Natsu's dead_, he thought, and even if he wouldn't openly admit to being worried about the dragon slayer, he most certainly wanted to avoid that.

"Stop!" A laboured voice suddenly called and he looked over to one of the numerous doorways to find Lucy, waving one of her keys. She looked towards Gray with glassy eyes that were anything but reassuring, but at least she didn't stare at him like Mikigi did. "Where's Loke?", she asked sounding strained, but sort of like herself again. Gray wasn't sure if he could trust that, but he waved in the general direction of where he supposed Erza and Loki were but with the mess of walls and doorways that weren't all in the same place as they were before he was pretty sure that the gesture was pretty useless.

"LOKE!", Lucy suddenly yelled at the top of her lungs. "Whatever it is you're doing, stop right now, don't kill anybody!" she instructed.

"Oh thank god", came a relieved voice from the direction Gray had been pointing, and it sounded as though the Lion spirit was actually much closer than he'd assumed.

"And you!", Lucy said, turning to Mikigi with a look that could be described as nothing other than psychotic. "You stop, too."

"Don't make me laugh, girl", she replied haughtily. "Don't think your little act of rebellion is gonna last, and even if it could, Mikigi is one of my oldest servants, that even if our connection were severed she'd still do exactly as I asked. So just go save us all some time and cut off the dragon slayer's head like you were supposed to."

"If you're not careful, I'm going to find you and cut off yours for even thinking such a thing", Lucy said in a threatening tone that briefly elevated her scariness level beyond Erza's.

"I'm looking forward to when you're completely under my control again. I like your temperament, I'm sure we can have fun with that", Mikigi said with a laugh. Again, creepiness level through the roof.

Lucy stalked towards the magic stealer and Gray noticed that the weird crystal on her neck had started flashing red instead of green as it had before. Mikigi had one of those as well, steadily glowing green. "Mikigi. You will stop!", Lucy instructed firmly.

"No, she won't. You know I can just let her envelop her hand with some fire for a while longer and your precious friend will bite the dust without any further assistance."

"Stop!", Lucy said again, strain evident in her voice, but her gaze unwavering. The crystal on her neck glowed red again, and for a brief moment so did Mikigi's and as it did her face went from a look of smug superiority to one of pain and confusion and back in a matter of seconds.

"We can get you out of here", Lucy said. "You can be free, all you have to do is stop hurting my friends. We know it's not your fault." The crystal glowed red again, longer this time, and again Mikigi's face looked utterly heartbreaking.

"Stop wasting your breath, Str…" Mikigi stopped in the middle of a sentence, looking confused again, but then went on "-ied, none of them succeeded"

Lucy put her hand on Mikigi's shoulder, the one without the spikes and said, "we'll help you. I promise"

Mikigi's crystal glowed red again and didn't go back to green this time, and she seemed to crumble under Lucy's touch, raising her fists to clumsily hide her face. "No", she said weakly, her voice a lot different from before.

"Just stop. Give Natsu back his magic."

"They'll hurt me", the girl said with a sob. "The pain, I don't… please don't make me…"

"He won't hurt you again, we'll stop him", Lucy said, softer now. Gray wasn't actually sure if they could deliver on that promise, but most of all he was glad to see Lucy being back to herself again. Somehow they'd solve that girl's problems, they always found a way to deliver on their promises in the end.

"You can't", Mikigi whimpered, but she didn't seem quite as scared anymore, slowly letting her hands sink.

"We'll find a way. And you don't really want to hurt anyone, do you?", Lucy said. For the first time, Mikigi looked directly into Lucy's eyes and then tentatively shook her head. "Then stop."

The girl squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and then looked back at Lucy. "I don't have the fire anymore."

Lucy gave her a smile. "Thank you…" She was going to say something else, but was abruptly cut off by a sharp yell, followed by a scream.

A very feminine sounding one.

Gray felt all the blood drain out of his face when he realized the voice was Erza's.

* * *

><p>AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Let me know what you think about the new chapter


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